The lathe is intended for the manufacture and processing of metal products. Professional devices are quite expensive. It is possible to save money if you make a homemade one lathe for metal. This is done in various ways.

Design features

Every metal lathe contains the following components:

• drive - the key unit of the machine, on which the power of the equipment depends. Choosing a motor is quite difficult. In small devices, it is possible to use an engine from an ordinary washing machine, an electric drill. The minimum drive power should be 200 W, rpm - 1500;
• bed - the supporting frame of the device. It can be made from wood blocks, steel corners. The lathe bed must be strong. IN otherwise the device will break due to vibration;
• tailstock - the material of manufacture is a steel plate, to which a metal corner is welded. The plate rests against the guides of the supporting frame. It is designed to fix metal blanks during processing;
• headstock - similar to the tailstock, however, it is installed on a moving frame;
  leading, driven center;
• support - an element of the stop for the working part.

The torque from the drive to the working part is communicated by different methods. Someone mounts it on the drive shaft. This is done to save space and money. It is also possible to communicate the torque by means of a friction / belt / chain transmission. Each of these methods has its own pluses and minuses.

A belt drive for an electric drive is the cheapest, very reliable. To make it, use a belt that was removed from another unit. The disadvantage of such a transmission is that the belt gradually wears out. The frequency of its replacement depends on the intensity of use.

The chain drive has a higher price, is larger in size, but has a long operating period. Friction transmission - the middle version between chain and belt.

When assembling a lathe with your own hands, use the gear that is considered suitable for solving your problems. For example, in a mini-lathe, it is desirable to mount the working part directly on the shaft.

Caliper creation

The caliper is considered essential element lathe. The quality of the manufactured product, the amount of effort and time that you spend on its production depends on it. The support is located on a special slide that moves along the guides that are installed on the base frame. Moving is performed in 3 directions:

• longitudinally. The working part of the device moves along the length of the part. This movement is used to grind threads in products, remove a metal layer from a part;
• transversely. The working part moves at an angle of ninety degrees relative to the axis of the part. It is used to grind grooves, holes;
• obliquely. The movement is carried out at different angles. Used to grind grooves on the surface of a workpiece.

When making the caliper of a homemade lathe for metal with your own hands, you need to remember that it is subject to wear due to vibration. Fasteners loosen and play appears. The quality of the manufactured products deteriorates. To prevent this, you need to adjust the caliper from time to time.

It is necessary to adjust the caliper according to the intervals, backlash, oil seals. It is possible to remove gaps by inserting wedges between the guides and carriage. The workpiece backlash is eliminated with a special screw.

If the oil seals in the device are worn out, they must be washed well, lubricated with oil. In case of severe wear, it is advisable to change the oil seals to others.

How to assemble the device

To assemble a metal lathe with your own hands, you need to follow these steps:

1. Assembly of the machine frame from beams, channel elements. If you intend to machine large workpieces, use materials that can withstand significant stress. For example, if you want to machine metal parts that are longer than 5 cm, the thickness of the frame materials must be at least 0.3 cm for the corners and 3 cm for the rods.
2. Installation of longitudinal shafts with guides on channel elements. The shafts are connected by means of welding machine or bolts.
3. Headstock making. For this, a hydraulic cylinder with a wall thickness of at least 0.6 cm is used. A pair of bearings must be pressed into it.
4. Shaft laying. Large bore bearings are used.
5. Filling the hydraulic cylinder with grease.
6. Installing the pulley and caliper with guides.
7. Installation of an electric drive.

If you look at the drawings of the lathe, you will notice that a handyman is used to increase the stability of the tool holder, a thin metal strip is fixed at the bottom of the unit. It is designed to protect the working part of the device from deformation when processing the workpiece.

How to choose an electric drive

The most significant element of a do-it-yourself lathe is the electric drive. Thanks to him, the working part of the device moves. Therefore, the higher the drive power, the greater the power of the entire machine. The choice of the engine is necessary, taking into account the size of the metal parts that you intend to process.

For small workpieces, a 1 kW drive is ideal. It can be removed from an unnecessary sewing machine. For processing large parts, a 1.5 kW engine is required.

If you use circuits when assembling a metal lathe with your own hands, remember that all electrical elements must have reliable insulation. If you do not know how to handle electricity, see a professional. This way you will definitely not get hurt.

How to create a machine from a drill

If you want to save money and facilitate the assembly of the machine, use an ordinary electric drill instead of the engine. So you can:

• quickly assemble and disassemble the lathe with your own hands. The electric drill is easily dismantled from the bed, can be used for drilling holes;
• Easily transport the device. This is especially true for those who process parts in the garage, on the street;
• save money. The electric drill allows you not to engage the gear, use replaceable attachments as a working tool.

Of course, this device has certain disadvantages. How to make a drill-based metal lathe so that you can machine large workpieces? The answer is practically nothing. The electric drill has a rather small torque, a large number of revolutions. It is possible to change these indicators if you mount a belt drive. However, the design will become much more complex. The machine will lose its key advantage.

Making a lathe based on an electric drill is recommended for those who intend to process only small workpieces. To create a device, you will need everything the same as for an ordinary machine, except for the drive and the headstock. An ordinary table, workbench can act as a supporting frame. The electric drill is fixed by means of a clamp, clamp.

Using a machine in which a homemade lathe chuck is installed, it is possible to grind blanks, paint them, wind wire on a transformer device, and create spiral notches.

Features of functioning

As with any other equipment, do-it-yourself turning / milling machines have their own characteristics. They must be taken into account when assembling and operating the device. For example, when machining large workpieces or when using a powerful electric motor, a significant vibration effect is manifested. It can lead to inaccuracies. In order to prevent this, the driving and driven centers of the device must be mounted on the same axis. If you only intend to mount the drive center, attach the cam unit to it.

It is undesirable to put a collector engine in hand-made devices. It can spontaneously increase the number of revolutions. This leads to the fact that the workpiece flies out, various injuries occur, equipment deteriorates. If you nevertheless installed a similar engine, do not forget to mount a reduction gearbox with it.

The best motor is an asynchronous one. It does not increase the number of revolutions when processing a workpiece, is resistant to high loads, and makes it possible to process metal products up to a decimeter wide.

Safety engineering

By exploiting homemade device, follow these rules:

• The cutter must be parallel to the surface of the workpiece, otherwise the machine will break due to the tool jumping off.
• When machining the ends, the workpiece must rest against tailstock.
• Use a special visor or glasses in order to protect the organs of vision from metal shavings flying in all directions.
• After finishing the processing, the machine must be cleaned by removing metal shavings and other industrial debris. Do not allow small particles to enter the electric motor of a homemade metal lathe.

In order to make a lathe with your own hands, a home craftsman will need to figure out the mechanism of its action, prepare some materials and have the patience necessary for assembly homemade construction, which will allow you to process a variety of metal products.

1 Why do you need a homemade lathe?

No man will refuse to have a small lathe in his house or apartment. Indeed, with its help, you can perform many operations related to the processing of metal parts, from rolling a corrugated surface and boring holes, and ending with threading and giving the outer surfaces of parts of specified shapes.

Of course, you can try to get a factory turning set. But such a purchase is not affordable for everyone, and it is almost impossible to place a production machine in an ordinary home due to the fact that equipment for metal turning takes up a lot of space. An excellent alternative the acquisition of a bulky and inconvenient factory machine is to make a simple and at the same time functional lathe with your own hands.

A homemade metal lathe, assembled according to all the rules, will have simple controls, take up a minimum of space, and be distinguished by ease of operation. At the same time, on it you can easily process various metal and steel products of small geometric dimensions, becoming a real home craftsman.

2 The device and mechanism of action of a homemade machine

Before you start creating a turning unit for household use, it will be useful to learn about its main components and the mechanism of action of such equipment. An elementary machine consists of the following parts:

• two grandmas;
• frame;
• two centers: one of them is the driven, the other is the leading;
• an emphasis for a working cutting tool;
• electric drive.

The machine mechanisms are installed on the bed (in a self-made unit, its role is played by the frame). The tailstock moves along this base of the unit. The headstock is necessary to accommodate the basic unit of rotation of the equipment; it is stationary. A transfer device is also mounted in the bed, which connects the driving center to the electric motor. Through this center, the required rotation is transmitted to the workpiece being processed.

The bed of the "home" machine is usually made of wooden beam, you can also use corners or profiles made of steel (metal). It doesn't matter what kind of material you choose for the frame, the main thing is that it rigidly fixes the installation centers.

It is allowed to install almost any electric motor on a homemade turning unit, even a very small one in power, but at the same time it should be understood that it technical characteristics may not be enough for high-quality processing of parts, especially when it comes to a metal-working machine. Low power the electric motor will not allow working with metal, but even a motor with a capacity of about two hundred watts can cope with wooden blanks.

Rotation in homemade machines can be communicated by means of a chain, friction or belt drive. The last of these is used most often, since it is characterized by maximum reliability. In addition, there are also such designs of units made independently, in which the transmission device is not provided at all. In them, the driving center or chuck for fastening the working tool is placed directly on the shaft of the electric motor. A video of the operation of such a unit can be easily found on the Internet.

3 Some design features of "home" lathes

To prevent vibration of workpieces, mount the driving and driven center on the same axis. If you plan to make a machine with only one center (with a leading one), the design of such equipment will need to provide for the possibility of fixing the product with a cam chuck or faceplate.

Experts do not advise installing collector-type electric motors on self-made turning units. Their revolutions in the absence of working loads can increase without the operator's command, which leads to the flyout of the part from the fastening elements. It is clear that such a "flying" blank can do a lot of trouble in a confined space - in an apartment or in a private garage.

If you still plan to install a collector motor, take care of equipping it with a special gearbox. This mechanism eliminates the risk of uncontrolled acceleration of the parts being machined.

The optimal type of drive for a homemade unit is the usual asynchronous motor... It is characterized by high stability under loads (constant speed) and provides high-quality processing of parts up to 70 cm wide and up to 10 centimeters cross-section. In general, the type and power of the electric motor must be selected so that the product being turned receives a sufficient rotation force.

The driven center, which, as noted, is located on the tailstock, can be fixed or rotating. It is made from a standard bolt - you just need to sharpen the end of its threaded section under the cone. The bolt is treated with machine oil and inserted into the thread (internal) cut in the tailstock. Its stroke should be approximately 2.5-3 centimeters. The rotation of the bolt makes it possible to press the workpiece between the two centers of the unit.

4 The process of self-production of a unit for turning work

Next, we will talk about how to make a homemade bow-type lathe, and also provide a video of this simple process. With the help of such an installation, you can grind metal and other materials, sharpen knives and other cutting devices. The unit, among other things, will become your best assistant in those cases when you yourself are engaged in the repair of your car.

First, we need to cut out two strong racks from wood and attach the bolts to them with nuts. The frame will be attached to them homemade machine, which can also be made of wood (if possible, it is better to use some sort of metal for the frame - a steel corner or channel).

It is imperative to make a special tool that increases the level of stability of the cutter for turning metal parts. Such a handcuff is a construction of two boards glued at right angles (or connected by small screws). Moreover, a strip of thin metal is attached to the lower board, which is necessary to protect the working tool from changing its shape during rotation. A slot is cut out in a plank standing horizontally, which makes it possible to control the movements of the handcuff.

You shouldn't have any problems with the manufacture of the tailstock and headstock - the essence is clear, and if any difficulties arise, you can watch a video on the Internet, where this process is shown and described in great detail. Headstock chucks, as a rule, are made from finished cylinders suitable in cross section to overall design machine, or by welding sheet iron.

Ramu homemade installation it is advisable to install it on a duralumin base, securely fasten the frame to it, mount all the machine units (there are not so many of them). After that, we take up the power unit of our equipment. First of all, we select a suitable electric motor. For processing metal products, it must be powerful enough:

• if you plan to work with small parts - from 500 to 1000 watts;
• for work with more "large-scale" workpieces - from 1500 to 2000 watts.

For "handicraft" turning equipment, motors from old sewing and washing machines as well as motors from other equipment. Here you can decide for yourself which drive you can mount on homemade unit... A hollow steel shaft (spindle head) is connected to an electric motor using a belt or other transmission. This shaft is connected to a pulley that is keyed. The pulley is needed to secure the working tool.

You can connect the power mechanisms yourself, but it is better to involve an electrician in this operation. In this case, you will be sure that your turning installation will provide complete electrical safety for turning work. After assembly, the machine is ready for use. If you need to subsequently expand its operational capabilities, this is easy to do.

So, for example, abrasives can be placed on the protruding end of the motor shaft, or, and with their help, it can be polished, as well as high-quality sharpening of household tools. If desired, it is easy to make or purchase a special type adapter equipped with a chuck for drilling metals. It can be attached to the shaft shown above and can be slotted into a variety of parts and drilled holes.

Enjoy working in your very own DIY mini lathe center!

Components of the home unit

Usually contains the following constituent elements:

• the bed, which is the supporting frame of the entire structure, which must be particularly durable so as not to break when vibrated during its action;
• the drive, which is the main part of the mechanism, which is responsible for the power of its action (you can use the drive of a drill or washing equipment);
• a tailstock made of a steel plate element with a steel corner welded to it for fixing metal products when working on this unit;
• headstock, similar to the tailstock, only installed on the moving part of the frame structure;
• driven and driven centers on the tailstock;
• a support that serves as a thrust mechanism in the active part of the unit.

Lathe structure

• torque to the working part of the device from the engine can be produced in different ways, for example, install the working part on the motor shaft itself or use a friction, belt or chain drive;
• for installing a belt drive, quite inexpensive with a fairly high level reliability, it is quite possible to use a belt removed from the electric motor of another device (you just need to remember that belts wear out over time and must be replaced frequently);
• installing a chain drive will be more expensive, it will take more space, but it will last longer than the belt;
• when installing a friction gear, it is important to understand that its characteristics correspond to the intermediate data between the action of the chain and belt drives.

Machine device

If we consider the drawing of a home turning device, then it is obvious that its headstock consists of the following elements:

• V-belt;
• two-stage pulley;
• spindle;
• ball bearing.

The tailstock in a lathe contains the following parts:

• frame;
• center;
• two handles;
• quill;
• three screws;
• flywheel;
• traction;
• lever arm;
• screw.

It should be borne in mind that the driven center is located on the tailstock and can be both dynamic and stationary. Such a center can be made from a simple bolt sharpened at one end, giving it a tapered shape. They are treated with technical oil (grease), inserted inside.

The tailstock is made in a similar manner using the same taper bolt and locknut.

Homemade metal lathe

Support

This part of the device that serves as a stop for work surface, is located on moving, on specially placed guides, "skids". The caliper generally moves in three specific directions:

• longitudinal, to move the working part of the machine along the workpiece to be machined, used to carve a thread in parts, to remove chamfers;
• transverse, used to grind all kinds of holes, depressions, recesses;
• inclined, produced at different angles, also used for turning different recesses on the surface of workpieces.

If you look at the drawing of the caliper, you will notice that it includes the following details:

• cross slide;
• lead screw;
• guides;
• holder for the cutter;
• screw for fastening it;
• carriage;
• swivel part;
• handle for turning the tool holder;
• handle for moving the upper part;
• the upper part of the caliper;
• flywheel for longitudinal movements;
• nuts;
• a handle for moving the sled;
• apron;
• transverse guides;
• lever to turn on the flow from the lead screw.

To make a caliper yourself, you need to take into account that it is subject to significant wear due to the vibration that occurs during its operation. As a result, the mounts can loosen, play appears, which does not contribute to good quality parts manufactured on it. To avoid such troubles, it is recommended to constantly adjust the caliper, adjust it.

A few tips for adjusting the machine slide:

• it becomes necessary to adjust the gaps if the screw, which is responsible for movement in the longitudinal and transverse planes, is worn out;
• due to the resulting friction, the caliper may begin to stagger under loads, which leads to a decrease in the accuracy of the parts being manufactured;
• wedges can be inserted to eliminate the gaps between the guides;
• to eliminate backlash in parts, they usually use a fixing screw;
• in case of severe wear of the oil seals, you need to rinse them well, then soak them with fresh technical oil, and if necessary replace them with new ones.

If all the operations to restore the oil seals did not help, you will have to purchase new ones

Self-assembly of the machine

If you look at the assembly drawing of a home turning device, you can see that it includes the following parts:

• tailstock;
• running pipe;
• channels;
• support;
• a pallet for collecting chips;
• electric motor;
• lead screw;
• headstock;
• lamp in a special protective cap;
• support;
• mesh screen for chip protection.

To build a mini-lathe with your own hands, you need to adhere to a certain order:

• make the frame of the device from metal beams, and it is desirable that the thickness of the material used be at least 3 mm for corners and at least 30 mm for rods;
• install special longitudinal shafts on the channels, welded or bolted;
• make a headstock using a hydraulic cylinder with a wall thickness of at least 6 mm (2 bearings must be pressed into the cylinder);
• lay the shaft using bearings of a slightly larger diameter;
• then fill the hydraulic cylinder with lubricant;
• mount the electric drive.

Such a miniature lathe, made independently, can serve not only for turning purposes, but even perform operations for grinding products, polishing them, if you attach grinding wheel.

Engine

One of the most important parts included in a home-made metal lathe with your own hands is an electric motor, with the assistance of which the working parts of the device can actually be moved.

In the case when it is supposed to perform turning work on the machine with small details, the power of the electric motor can be small (up to 1 kW), it is convenient to remove the motor from an old-style electric sewing machine or use another similar electrical device.

If it is supposed to work with large parts on the machine, an electric motor with a power of 1.5 to 2 kW may be required.

When assembling such a machine yourself, you must definitely pay attention that all electrical parts of the assembled device are reliably insulated.

Drill machine

To make it easier for yourself to work on the arrangement home machine, you can take a simple electric drill for the drive.

DIY lathe with a drill

Such a lathe from a drill has a number of advantages:

• this device can be assembled very quickly, and, if necessary, disassembled (if the drill needs to be used for its intended purpose), then reassemble it;
• this lathe from a drill is compact, easy to carry, transported to any place (you can bring it into the garage, for example, or, conversely, take it out into the street);
• profitable and economical, since the drill replaces the electric motor, which means that there is no need to use the gear;
• convenient because interchangeable drill bits can be used as necessary working tools.

The disadvantages of a do-it-yourself lathe from a drill include the inability to process large parts on it.

If a grinding wheel is attached to the electric motor of a manufactured metal lathe, then knives, scissors and various household tools can be sharpened on it.

The first machine, the need for which every artisan person feels, is a bench drill, or simply a drill. But after purchasing it or making it with your own hands, it soon turns out that you need to sharpen something, and the lathe costs an order of magnitude more. There is a great temptation to make a universal lathe like the one in fig. below:

Before the ingenuity, skill and accuracy of such masters, all that remains is to take off their hats. Yes, you can sharpen wood on a metal lathe; Many of these bench-top lathes are equipped with chuck inserts to hold the piece of wood. But - alas! - a self-made universal lathe will not hold precision on metal for a long time.

The point is not only that the cutting force of metal is many times greater than that of wood. The very physics of metal cutting is completely different. In order not to go into the basics, even a cursory superficial review of which will require an inordinate amount of space, let's take and compare: have you seen a cutter for metal, sharp as a chisel or a piece of iron in a plane? And what happens if you cut a tree with a metal chisel? The drill can still cope with both materials: there the cutting force is symmetrically concentrated on the working body itself. But as for the point of the metal, the requirements for the machine tool, the requirements for the machine tool for it are such that machine tool construction, long before the industrial era, stood out as a separate industry. The best machine-building plant does not make machine tools for itself - it is beyond its capacity. However, it is quite possible to assemble a wood lathe with your own hands, and so that the maximum machining accuracy achievable on wood is +/– 0.5 mm, it will keep long years if not decades. It is still impossible to do without 2-3 turning operations on metal (see below), but in this case, a 2-3-grade turner will be able to make them to order on a conventional, not increased accuracy, machine, even if it is a restored RIP. And, of course, you will need to buy a set of cutters for processing wood on a lathe, see fig. Everything else will not require additional mandatory costs.

History and evolution

Further in the text you will come across effective technical solutions, but little known to amateur craftsmen, because in industry, for one reason or another, they are not used or are used to a limited extent. However, the manufacture of a homemade lathe for woodworking, they can simplify and facilitate so much that in some cases it will be possible to restrict from a power tool hand drill... The machine tool industry of the millennium is developing under the sign of solving the problem: how on a machine tool with accuracy, for example, in 1 conventional unit of length, to make machine parts with an accuracy of, say, 0.2 of the same units? Etc. To understand how technology came to this life, it will be useful to turn to history for a while.

The progenitor of all machines in general for processing materials by rotation is a device with which people of the Neolithic made fire and drilled horn, bone, stone, pos. 1 in fig; in the latter cases, an abrasive made of wet quartz sand was poured under a drill made of wood or bone. The primitive Celts, on the same principle, invented a lathe with a foot drive, pos. 2; the centers were made of sharpened fired stakes of hard wood. In England, this unit is still used by furniture makers. The forest is not cut down there in blocks. Having bought off a couple of scaffoldings for felling, the master then takes out in armfuls to the track ready-made legs, balusters, etc. In a craft of this type, the machine survived for approx. before the beginning of the 18th century, pos. 3, although the workpiece turns back and forth in it and the master has to be additionally distracted in order to turn the cutter.

IN Ancient egypt already in the era of the Middle Kingdom, the lathe with a bow drive, pos. 4. The "motor" was, of course, the slave. In the Russian village community (in the world) with its strong traditions of mutual aid and mutual assistance, the bow lathe lived in the outback until ... the 80s of the last century! Mass individual wooden construction was in no way included in the five-year plans, but the Soviet leadership in the provinces turned a blind eye to unauthorized logging in limited amounts for their own needs or to the unauthorized purchase of wild logs from the timber industry enterprises for the universal Soviet currency with a fortress of 40 vol. and a capacity of half a liter.

For fine and / or small work, a foot machine with a cord and a bow was not suitable: there are always irregularities in the tree, and the workpiece itself was the flywheel - the damper of torsional vibrations. Master Theodore introduced radical improvements to the lathe in Ancient Greece approx. in 400 BC e, pos. 6. He supplemented the foot drive, firstly, with a crank - now the workpiece rotated in one direction. Secondly, I made the centers rotatable and provided one of them with a grip to hold the workpiece. Thirdly, he introduced a heavy flywheel into the kinematic diagram. Individual machines of this design were in operation at industrial enterprises before the start of the electrification of the industry, pos. 7 - with the then complete absence of social guarantees, the labor of an unskilled auxiliary was cheaper than the cost of maintaining a steam engine.

The electrified wood lathe (item 8 in the previous figure) has remained practically unchanged since the end of the 19th century (see also the figure below):

• a - the rotor of the motor and other massive parts of the drive do not require the use of a separate flywheel;
• b - in the chuck, you can put various tips for different kinds blanks (see below) or drill;
• c - a hand-arm with a rotary shelf-stop for a cutter, installed on a movable carriage, makes it possible to carry out a variety of different working operations;
• d - a tailstock with a rotating center allows you to bring the processing accuracy to the maximum possible on a tree;
• e - the tailstock quill feed screw (see below) makes it possible to carry out complex processing of the workpiece into the part in one setup. During processing, the wood yields under the pressure of the holder and the center. If the tailstock is rigidly fixed, the workpiece looses during machining. The machine has to be stopped and the blanks must be reinstalled, which in no way contributes to the quality of work.

And if without a motor?

A non-volatile wood lathe can come in handy today; say, in a country house or an unequipped construction site. The muscular strength of a normally developed person is sufficient for turning workpieces from ordinary timber with a diameter of approx. up to 150 mm. In such a case, 2 options are possible (see next figure): a good old machine with a foot drive (the dimensions of its most important unit - the crank are given in the upper right); for more details, see below, and processing on a trestle with a manual cord drive (bottom right in the figure). You cannot round a lesin in a girth in this way, but it is possible to pierce the support pillars of a porch, a gazebo or a canopy over the barbecue.

Make or buy?

The first question that needs to be resolved: since some mandatory costs (see below) are inevitable, then are there no opportunities to purchase a wood processing machine without borrowing and cutting the budget? There are, and very good ones.

If you come across an old UBDN-1 at a reasonable price (on the left in the figure) or its modern counterparts (in the center), do not yawn! There is no need to re-equip anything at home: a motor up to 350 W with double-insulated windings. The machine is plugged into a regular socket, no grounding is required. And you will get in one product:

1. Circular saw;
2. Electrojack for sharpening tools, etc .;
3. Jointing machine;
4. Disc grinder;
5. Horizontal drilling machine;
6. Lathe for woodworking.

Another option, most likely, is cheaper, but already only for horizontal drilling and turning - a drill bed, which turns it into a lathe, on the right in Fig. Drill stands for drills are sold almost on the streets, but not everyone knows about turning. Meanwhile, an electric drill as a drive for a wood machine has serious advantages (see below), and a lathe with it will be no worse than a proprietary one. But many times cheaper.

Note: for a start, it's better to whip up a simple lathe and work a little on it. Wood turning skills are easy to develop, and how to quickly make a simple wood lathe, see the video:

Video: a simple homemade lathe

Main material

The next question is what to make a homemade lathe from? The answer seems to be obvious: made of metal, after all, the machine cannot be weaker than the workpiece? And how did the primitives drill stone with wood? How did the ancient Egyptians build pyramids with wood and copper (there was no bronze then)? And see above about the main issue of machine tool construction.

A lathe for woodworking can be made of metal (pos. 1 in the figure), metal-wood, pos. 2, from scrap materials with minimal use of metal, pos. 3 and even ... without a bed, pos. 4. So, on any of them, a sufficiently experienced and accurate master can regularly work for a long time with maximum accuracy for a tree. Wood is not only a noble, but also a rewarding material.

Which tree?

Yes, but which tree to take? Best of all - oak without defects, seasoned, completely natural shrinkage and shrinkage. Lathes made of high-quality oak 100 years old and more are still working today. And as for home-made - the bed and headstock of an oak (in the literal sense) machine tool are made very simply, see below.

If there is no suitable quality oak lumber, then you can do with the usual drill pine, but the frame will have to be made according to the frame-beam power scheme. In the Anglo-Saxon countries, where oaks have long been registered by the piece, such home lathes are very common. Drawings of the "English" lathe for wood with a bed of ordinary drill wood are given in Fig; dimensions in inches. It is actually an old-time electric crank foot machine. To return it to a non-volatile form, it is enough to extend the middle rack of the bed to the bottom, put it on its paw and mount the pedal with a connecting rod, crank and flywheel, see above.

Drive unit

Working with a muscle motor is, of course, not for everybody: now electricity is almost everywhere. In extreme cases, you can also be powered from a car accumulator through a voltage converter. If you find somewhere in other articles on this topic something like: pull a 3-phase cable towards you, make protective grounding, buy a 3-5 kW motor, do not believe the elephant that he is a buffalo. To round the timber of medium "roughness" up to a diameter of 300 mm, the drive power of the machine tool 1-1.5 kW is sufficient; for turning into curly support post 200 mm logs - 350 W.

The spindle speed is much more important. Its rotation frequency should not exceed 600-700 rpm, otherwise the probability of "biting" the cutter and the occurrence of a traumatic situation sharply increases. It is best to limit yourself to revolutions set in the range (60-70) - (300-400) 1 / min. Then a trace is possible. drive options:

• Asynchronous motor with double insulation and capacitor start + mechanical transmission.
• The engine of the same type is 2-4 speed.
• Electric drill drive.

Just a motor

It is not easy, because it is impossible to regulate the rotation speed of an asynchronous electric motor by changing the supply voltage: the slip of the rotor grows like an avalanche, and so on. the torque drops. Making a powerful frequency converter is difficult and expensive. There remains only a 2-3 speed manual transmission. Belt or chain - they dampen jerks due to inhomogeneities of the workpiece, and gear, on the contrary, enhances them. Plus - heavy rotor, heavy pulleys, elastic belt. The torsional inertia of the drive turns out to be such that it is possible to sharpen completely knotty shape blocks on a cut, which has nothing in common with a circle. Minus - you need to order or look for turned pulleys.

Washer motor

The rotation speed of the asynchronous electric motor can be changed stepwise by switching the windings. Motors of this type are installed in some models of washing machines (in washing machines with a direct drum drive, only such) and in floor fans with airflow switching. Rotational speeds in either case are ideal for wood turning. Fan motor power approx. 40-70 W, which is enough for a mini-machine (see below). The motor power from the washing machine is 300-400 W - quite enough.

Drawings of a wood lathe with a motor from a washing machine are given in Fig.:

The motor from a washing machine with a direct drum drive as a drive for a lathe for woodworking has a great advantage: its bearing assemblies are designed for a large unbalanced load, so it will be possible to sharpen the most viscous and twisted wood. But with knots, the situation is worse: the flywheel is only the rotor of the motor, and the cutter on them will twitch.

Note: how to make a wood lathe with a motor from a washing machine, see the video:

Video: lathe with a washing machine motor

From a drill

Both machines from the point of view of the usual home master there is a big drawback: you need to either put a grip only for wood on the headstock, or order an adapter for the motor shaft with a Morse taper for a chuck chuck. Finding the sizes of typical Morse cones on the Internet is not difficult; the dimensions of the cone for a conventional drill chuck No. 1 see in fig. on right. But - you need to sharpen the cone with an accuracy of at least +/– 0.025 mm. That is, you need a lathe for metal with increased accuracy of 0.02 mm. An expert with sufficient qualifications who owns such equipment may simply not be found within reach.

If the drive of the machine is an electric drill, the problems of precision machining disappear: the chuck can be removed with a homemade puller, and a standard commercial holder for a wooden blank can be placed on the cone. Or just clamp in the chuck the same, but cheaper with a cylindrical shank. Or even make a workpiece holder yourself, (see below).

The design of such a critical unit as the headstock is also extremely simplified in a lathe from a drill: it turns into a simple clamp. Two options for the drawings of a clamp for a drill to a lathe are given in fig:

Headstocks - clamps for a wood lathe from a drill

Metal on the left; on the right - from solid fine-grained wood. Wooden is better: it dampens vibrations well and does not spoil the collar of the drill. Its manufacture has a certain number. peculiarities:

1. Threaded rod for clamping wing 1 is required M10-M12;
2. A blind hole for a hairpin is first drilled 1-1.5 m narrower so that it enters it with a turn along the thread;
3. The top of the hole is bored to the full diameter;
4. The hairpin is screwed in until it stops;
5. The workpiece is laid flat and a through hole is drilled in place for a locking screw 2 M4-M6;
6. Fix the pin with a locking screw;
7. The knot is finally assembled.

An electric drill as a drive of a machine tool has only one drawback: a collector motor with a thyristor speed controller. At low rotational speeds, the torque on the shaft drops noticeably, this is felt already during drilling. Therefore, on the machine from a drill with a power of 280-350 W, you can sharpen wood blanks with a diameter of approx. up to 150 mm. However, the simplification of the technology of manufacturing a lathe for woodworking with a drive from a drill is so thorough that drill machines are made in the most a variety of options, see the video selection:

From scrap materials without bed:

Video: wood lathe quickly

With plywood bed:

Video: plywood lathe with a drill motor

Conventional design:

Video: universal wood lathe

Enhanced with enhanced functionality:

Video: improved wood lathe from a drill

Stanina

Metal and oak wood lathe bed have their own advantages and disadvantages. But by combining wooden power (bearing) elements with reinforced metal fasteners, it is possible to obtain a frame that is made "on the knee" hand tool+ electric drill and will last at least 20-30 years.

The design of the combined bed of a wood lathe is shown in Fig.:

Basic construction material- standard oak beam 100x100, 3 m long. Overall length of the bed is 1.2 m. The drawing is to scale, missing dimensions can be removed and recalculated in mm from it. If there is more good oak, the length of the bed can be increased to 1.5-2 m. Both headstock are of the same design and are designed for self-made rotation units, see below. The ridges at the bottom of the headstock exclude the center skew. The whole structure can be made with hand-held carpentry tools and an electric drill.

Note: a mini-lathe for wood was made according to essentially the same power scheme, see next. rice. A motor from a 2-3-speed floor fan will fit it, see above, with a 1: 1 transmission.

If it's metal

The whole set of qualities of an oak bed is quite enough for turning wood. The use for this purpose in the mass production of metal is dictated by economic considerations: just the cost metal product, intended for continuous 3-shift operation, turns out to be much less than a wooden one. 1 cubic meter m of aged oak is much more expensive than a centner of conventional structural steel.

Amateur craftsmen, not knowing about it, often "for the sake of strength" make the beds of lathes on wood from a channel. But it turns out roughly even for "wooden" accuracy (on the left in the figure), and it is not realistic to stitch the working surfaces of channels at home. In addition, from welding, the entire structure can be driven by a "propeller", which is completely unrealistic to fix. Therefore, it is better to assemble the bed from the channel with bolts (on the right in the figure).

Much more reliable in this respect is a bed of paired pipes (on the left in the next figure): when welding it leads less, you can correct the misalignment by pulling the bed with bolts to the base, and it is possible to achieve a divergence of the centers of handicraft headstocks of 0.2 mm or less ... Drawings of a welded tubular bed of a lathe for wood from a drill are also shown in Fig.

Grandmas

It would seem that it is impossible to make the headstock of a lathe, and the back one with a rotating center, without precision turning work. No, it is possible - using the phenomenon of hydrodynamic oil cushion (OCD). By the way, this is one of the ways to answer the question: how to make parts for a machine with an accuracy of 0.2 on a machine with an accuracy of 1. In mechanical engineering, GDS is rarely used, because for its formation and stabilization, the machine with the workpiece fixed in it must run at idle speed for 2-5 minutes. If the shift lesson is only 10 parts, then the shift loss of working time will be up to an hour or half an hour, which in mass production "rolls over". But in general, it is not uncommon in the GDS technique. For example, warming up the internal combustion engine of your car is necessary incl. and in order for the gas pressure differential to form between the connecting rod clamps and the crankshaft journals, otherwise the engine resource sharply decreases.

What is GDP

The principle of operation of the GDS is shown in the figure:

Any grease is suitable for her: grease, grease, cyatim, fiol. But best of all - mine shafts, special lubricant for mining machines and mechanisms. Due to the difficult working conditions, they, like the Kalashnikov assault rifle, are made with large gaps between the rubbing parts, but the rate of fire is not required from them. Shakhtol is specially designed for relatively slow moving joints of rotation and is perfectly suited for the headstock of a wood lathe using a DSP.

Headstock

The device of a typical headstock of a lathe for woodworking is shown on the left in Fig. There are already a lot of metal turners in it for the amateur, and the shaft journals and the seat of the bearing caps need to be sharpened with the same precision as the Morse taper.

For a home-made headstock using a gas drive, you will need, in addition to purchased threaded parts: M12-M20 studs for the shaft, nuts and washers for them, another piece of bronze (not brass!) Foil 0.2-0.35 mm thick and, for a clip, a steel tube with sufficient wall thickness (see right in the figure). The entire assembly unit is made a trace. way:

1. The tube on the clip is cut exactly to the size of the thickness of the wooden headstock body, and pressed into it;
2. The body with the clip is laid flat, laid flat and the tube is drilled along the diameter of the threaded shaft;
3. The inner corners of the cage holes are smoothed by manual scraping - a reamer - as is done when installing air conditioners;
4. A rectangle is cut out of bronze foil with a height along the thickness of the headstock body and a width of 3 shaft diameters (for M12 36 mm, for M16 48 mm), its corners are slightly cut off at 45 degrees. In 3 diameters, because the bronze insert should slightly not converge at the edges, and π = 3.1415926 ...
5. 6-8 bronze washers are cut out of the same foil with a ballerina compass with two needles;
6. The washers are in turn clamped with palms between the plywood with fine sandpaper glued to them and, turning their hands back and forth, remove the burrs;
7. The shaft is wrapped with the same sandpaper and, squeezing it with your hand, the shaft is pulled several times with a twist in order to slightly remove the sharp edges of the thread;
8. Wrap the shaft with foil and try to insert it dry into the cage. If necessary, repeat operation 7. It is necessary that the shaft in the foil wrapper should fit tightly and could hardly be turned by hand in the cage;
9. Take out the shaft, remove the foil and screw one of the nuts onto it to the place;
10. Liberally grease the shaft thread with grease;
11. The same grease is used to lubricate the clip inside;
12. On one side, an ordinary steel and 3-4 bronze washers are applied, each liberally lubricated with the same grease;
13. Wrap the shaft with foil again and insert it into the cage;
14. Apply washers in reverse order on the other side, also lubricating abundantly;
15. Screw on and tighten the other nut so tight that the shaft can hardly be turned by hand;
16. The nuts are temporarily fixed with locknuts;
17. Lay the workpiece flat and drill through holes under the cotter pins;
18. Standard nuts are screwed. Best in segments of bicycle spokes, they have very high shear strength;
19. Collect the grandmother, put her pulley in place;
20. Twist the pulley by hand until it rotates tightly, but without jamming;
21. Assemble the drive of the machine and run it idling on minimum speed spindle (in slowest gear) until the motor is at full speed. If necessary, push the pulley by hand;
22. Repeat item 21 at the maximum spindle speed (at the fastest gear);
23. They put the workpiece gripper in place - the unit is ready for work.

If you don’t trust any helluva lot of clever physics there (although the units with GDS keep accuracy no worse than their counterparts in rolling friction), then in Fig. - drawings of the bearing assembly, equally suitable for homemade circular saw and a lathe for wood. In the latter case, a flat sole with side supports is not needed - the round body is simply inserted into the headstock body and fixed with a screw. Instead of saw blade put either a faceplate or an adapter with a cone under the chuck (det. 6).

Tailstock

The designs of the rotating centers of lathes for metal (above in the figure on the right) and for wood (also below) do not fundamentally differ, only the "wooden" one is designed for many times lower loads. But in work, especially at home, there is a significant difference: axial holes in turned wooden parts are drilled extremely rarely, because their strength is greatly reduced from this - wood, unlike metal, cracks easily. That is, abandoning the quill for replaceable working bodies, it is possible to simplify the tailstock design to suitability for manufacturing “on the knee” with a small share of simple custom-made turning operations.

A typical design of the tailstock of a wood lathe is shown in Fig. below. On the right in the same place - an insert with a rotating center in a wooden tailstock, made of a loop garage door... It also uses the GDS, and the center shank is fitted to the yoke similar to the headstock shaft, but simpler and lighter: the gap between the pin and the garage hinge socket is approx. 0.5 mm and, as a rule, the node is suitable for work without adjustment and lapping.

Some difficulties are caused only by fixing the center from the reverse longitudinal stroke. Slice trapezoidal thread and it is unrealistic to make a locking cracker or an eccentric for it at home, but the usual metric thread the locking screw will quickly crumple. The outlet is a floating aluminum bushing. Locksmiths are familiar with this method: if you need to clamp a threaded part in a vice, it is wrapped in thin aluminum or placed between aluminum gaskets - absolutely nothing happens to the thread.

The assistant

The simplest tool for a chisel is a piece of board with a wooden boss nailed / screwed to it. But for fine work this is not suitable: during the point of the fittings, you need to turn the shelf (stop) of the cutter, without loosening the fastening of the handguard itself and not displacing it. Therefore, the handguard must be made of metal with a rotary stop, however, custom-made turning and milling work is not required for this; see drawings in fig. on right.

Holder

So we got to the last question: how to securely fix the workpiece in the headstock of a lathe for woodworking? Considering that the tree is easily torn, crumpled, pricked, and the churas for the lathe sometimes come in amazing shapes.

The answer to this question is not as terrible as the devil is painted. Universal holder - trident, pos. 1 in fig. This is what household woodworking machines are supplied with, for example. mentioned UBDN-1. The shank is either smooth for a chuck, or threaded for installation on a shaft. The trident holder reliably holds workpieces up to 100-120 mm in diameter, and round ones - up to 200 mm. There is only one drawback: it is very difficult to make the very best trident for a wood lathe.

Screw chuck for small clean work (for example, turning wooden glasses), pos. 2, it is generally impossible to do without special equipment, but it is successfully replaced by the clamping chuck, pos. 3. If you need to process, on the contrary, a large workpiece with an incorrect configuration in the cut, use a faceplate, pos. four.

A faceplate for wood turning can also be made independently from bakelized plywood with a thickness of 12-16 mm. In this case, the washer is made 2-layer: the same one made of sheet steel with a thickness of 1-1.5 mm is attached to the plywood circle from the back side. The holes for the thorns in the plywood circle are drilled through, and instead of chiseled thorns, then cut off nail tips can be put. A glass for installing a faceplate under a nut on a threaded shaft shank can also be dialed from plywood rings and a steel bottom.

Finally, on the basis of a 3-4 layer faceplate, you can make a homemade cam chuck for wood, pos. 5. Are the cams sure they won't come together? So the accuracy of the workpiece is even worse. But you can sharpen bowls, saucers, etc. from the cuts of valuable wood. products on which there will be no traces of processing.

Note: the variety of holders for wood blanks is not limited to those described. For example, see the video on how to make a mini lathe with a crown holder for the smallest woodwork:

Video: mini wood lathe

Finally

Making a machine and working on it are different things not only in industry. Therefore, in the end, see a selection of videos on how to sharpen wood on a machine and make from a grinder copying machine on wood for carving balusters.

Putting things in order in a heap of electronic trash, I found the remains of tape recorders. A 9-volt power supply unit, which has a well-recognizable shape and was made back in the USSR, those who caught that time and owned an Electronica or IZH tape recorder will perfectly understand what this is about. And also an old electric motor, too, from some kind of tape recorder. It turned out that the block and the motor still work perfectly in tandem with each other, nothing rusted and stuck.

In general, I decided to try to assemble a mini lathe from all this, all the more I always wanted to have a small and quiet machine at hand for processing all kinds of small things. You can, of course, collect or buy pribluda (holders) that turn an ordinary drill into a machine, but such drills are usually very noisy because of all kinds of gearboxes rumbling in them.

In principle, I have a superficial idea of ​​the structure of a lathe, at first glance everything seems to be simple there. The only thing that was embarrassing was how to place the electric motor and the tailstock on the same axis. And also, what errors are permissible at the same time, because I did not want to get a vibrator for a vibrating table or a mobile phone instead of a lathe.

That same old power supply unit, for our time it is certainly huge, but for a test switch it is not so important.

I cut out the engine cover with metal scissors, drilled and bored holes for the engine in it, then bent it in the form of the letter "Py" and then installed the engine in it. Picked up pieces of wood suitable size for the base of the machine. Since my machine will be purely experimental, that is, assembled on the knee and from improvised means. I decided to first put together a rough model, and if it works as it should, then it will be possible to bring it to mind.

I screwed it onto the self-tapping screws, the base for the motor and the rear wall, in order to subsequently screw the casing with the electric motor to them.

I slightly altered the ends of the casing (bent them inward)

I drilled and screwed the casing with the motor to the back wall and to the base with self-tapping screws.

I cut a lid out of cardboard and put it on a couple of self-tapping screws on top.

Somehow it all now looks like this, in my opinion, in lathe terminology, this stray is called "Headstock"

From the same board I sawed squares, smeared with PVA glue and pulled them into a pile. This cube will serve as the tailstock of my homemade lathe.

I screwed this cube into four screws, a couple on top and a couple on the bottom.

If there was a drill chuck on the motor shaft, then the drill could be clamped into it and it would indicate the direction for the holder in the tailstock. And since I had some kind of brass pulley for the tape recorder on my shaft, I had to go a little differently. I just took a sheet of paper and bluntly wrapped it around this pulley, fixed the ends and turned on the motor.

After making sure that the opposite end of this tube rotates near the cube without running apart and beating, he turned off the engine and outlined the contours of the tube on the cube.

I drew the axis of the tube on the side planes of the cube by eye, so that when drilling the hole for the holder, I would guide the drill along these lines.

Also by eye, brought these lines on the opposite side of the tailstock.

Then I drilled this cube and screwed in a self-tapping screw, which will act as a workpiece holder.

I missed a little, and this is not so important, since in this way it is impossible to achieve perfect accuracy. But since this is just an experiment, we go further and close our eyes to all the jambs and inaccuracies. :-)

We clamp the workpiece and turn on the motor, bend our head slightly to the side, in case this blank wants to explore the vastness of the universe. :-) To prevent the holder from drilling the workpiece, I cut off a little thread from its tip.

I put a piece of rubber on the pulley itself and glued the workpiece to it bluntly with hot melt glue. Thus removing the headache about finding a suitable cartridge or holder. And besides, for some reason it seemed that the flexible connection slightly compensates for the curvature of the axis on which the motor and the holder are located, and at the same time the curvature of my hands. :-)

Oddly enough, but everything worked like a clock, the motor is certainly weak, but it copes with its mini-tasks with a bang.

I tried a bunch of different cutters, but most of all I liked to process the pieces of wood with an ordinary metal sheet and sandpaper... Apparently due to the lack of a handyman or a weak engine, all other tools immediately bite into the workpiece and stop the motor.

I tried to sharpen a tin rod, or rather lead-tin (solder). Here it was already good to process the workpiece with a cutter from a regular file, sharpened at the end.

I also planted these blanks on glue. The only thing to consider is the heating of the rod during processing. But since the cutter removes very little, I did not manage to heat it to such an extent that the rod peeled off the rubber pad.

Here I tried to sharpen a prototype for casting shells for this tiger. But later it turned out that his own shells have a poorer and more primitive appearance. And what I carved is more suitable for the royal tiger, so the idea was abandoned.

A bit of a lousy video of him buzzing.

In general, that's all, the machine turned out to be relatively silent, small, only 23 cm long, but the main thing is that it is self-assembled and also works. Basically I expected big problems when assembling a lathe, but as it turned out, the lathe assembled on the knee works great. Perhaps this is due to the scale, if the dimensions of the machine were larger, and the part would be clamped rigidly (in the drill chuck), then there would definitely be more adventures.

By the way, it is very easy to turn this lathe into a mini emery. Just stick on the pillow cutting disc from the Dremel and as a result we get a mini emery. This sandpaper helped me a lot when I needed to grind 70 plaster castings for this Tiger tank model. Of course, it is almost impossible to center it on the eye, unless you grind the disc itself. But at high revs, the beat is almost imperceptible, besides, it is reinforced, so you can not be afraid that it will burst and something will bounce into the eye. But in any case, no one has canceled the safety precautions when working with emery. Therefore, we keep our head away from the expected flight path of the disk fragments or work with glasses.

Recently I assembled my own 3D printer and the first serious printout on it became a mini drilling machine for hobby and modeling (), because I always dreamed of a silent mini drilling machine. In fact, a 3D printer is a pretty useful thing, you can use it without special efforts create cases, brackets and other pribluda, and thereby somewhat expand the park of various mini-hobby machines, and this lathe can be made into a divine form.